Shapeshifting Thoughts
by thelyokocode
Summary: Wendy thought after talking to Dipper following their adventure in the bunker that everything would go back to normal with ease, but something was lingering within herself. Wendip comfort!
1. Chapter 1

**Thanks for giving this a read, enjoy!**

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The Mystery Shack's cash register barely opened all day, the redheaded Wendy Corduroy not having to open it up much on such a slow day. She let out a sigh as her eyes read through a page of the most recent issue of "Indie Fuzz," not really paying attention to what the words were saying, using them just as a distraction to pass the time. She rested her head on her fist propped up on the counter, looking over to the empty stool next to her and letting out another sigh.

The past few days at the shack had been pretty lackluster without Dipper Pines sitting next to her, trying his hardest to make her laugh and smile. She stared at the seat of the stool for a few seconds before holding her head in her propped up hand, groaning softly in frustration. She knew why her dork wasn't here; she took some of his motivation away.

A few days ago, Dipper had invited Wendy to go on one of his mystery adventures, which she enthusiastically agreed to. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and herself eventually found themselves in an old bunker, apparently built by the author of the journal Dipper was always carrying around.

Not only did they nearly get smushed into pancakes with that crazy moving-walls-and-symbol-puzzle room, but they encountered a shapeshifting monster, which had it out for all of them. At one point during the scuffle with the creature that ensued, it turned into the shape of Wendy herself, playing possum.

In a state of shock and sadness, mixed with the adrenaline in his body, Dipper confessed his secret crush to Wendy, albeit indirectly. After defeating the shapeshifter, via Mabel and Soos freezing it in a cryogenic chamber, they four of them left the bunker, where Wendy took Dipper aside and explained to him that a relationship with him wouldn't work out.

She tried letting him down as easily as she thought she could, and Dipper seemed to take it well, wanting to still be friends, leaving with another movie night scheduled. During Wendy's bike ride home, her calm smile slowly morphed into a gloomy frown.

She knew it was the right thing to do, letting her dork down easy, but why did it feel so bad? He still wanted to be friends, so this should be fine, right?

"Must be a good article," a gruff voice said right next to Wendy, bringing her out of her thoughts with a small jump. Her boss, Stan Pines, stood next to her, still wearing his suit as he opened the cash register, counting up the day's profits. Wendy looked down at the magazine that was still open at the same place, wondering how long she'd been looking at the same two pages.

"Normally, I'd say something about not working and 'I don't pay you to read'' but there's barely been a customer today," Stan said, lifting up his unnecessary eye patch before flipping through banknotes. Wendy was slightly relieved, not having to listen to one of her almost daily lectures from her boss.

She grabbed her magazine and hopped onto her feet, pocketing her name tag and walking around the counter, heading for the door. She was almost to the exit of the gift shop when Stan spoke up again.

"Hey listen, I've, uh, noticed you've been kind of down recently, and that Dipper has as well. I don't want to pry or anything but-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Wendy interrupted, her head drooping a bit. While that sentence wasn't one-hundred percent true, she didn't want to talk about it at that moment, and not with Stan, even though she knew deep down he meant well.

"Phew, that's a relief!", Stan said, patting his brow with a banknote. Wendy rolled her eyes, opening the door, getting a whiff of pine tree that just brought her mind right back to Dipper. She let out a third sigh, dragging her feet through the open doorway.

"Look, I don't like seeing you or Dipper moping around like this. You guys are, uh, important to me, y'know. Ugh, I'm not good at this sappy stuff like Mabel is. Just, you guys are too close to be like this, don't wait too long to talk to him." Stan said as he moved into the doorway, stopping in the middle of it as he finished.

Wendy stopped as she listened to him, still facing the woods, not wanting to show her boss her diminishing mood, continuing her walk into the woods surrounding the Mystery Shack afterwords.

The redhead kept drudging towards home, repeating the talk she had with Dipper outside the bunker over and over in her head, feeling worse each time she remembered his face after she let him down. Her mind was conflicted. She stopped about halfway to her family's cabin, looking up at the starry night sky with another exhausted and somber sigh.

"Why do I feel like this?", Wendy said out loud to herself, "I felt fine after I talked with Dipper, but now this?" She thought the lingering sadness of having to reject someone she knew had a huge crush on her would eventually pass, but it seemed like her sorrow was going nowhere.

Her eyes started tracing out shapes in the twinkling stars above, her brain trying to do anything to cheer itself up. After a few imaginary constellations were made, the redhead recognized one that was all too familiar, The Big Dipper. She closed her eyes and shook her head, continuing her walk home.

"Ugh, just going to make myself more upset like this." Wendy said to herself, quickly reaching Corduroy cabin, making her way inside and to her room with a quick "hello" to her father and brothers. She flopped herself face-first onto her bed, right into her pillow, which she proceeded to groan loudly into.

She rolled over onto her back after unsuccessfully venting her frustrations out, looking over to her alarm clock on her bedside table, her eyes landing on a picture of her dork, Dipper Pines, giving a shy smile and wave to the camera. Wendy groaned again, covering her eyes with her hands.

"This sucks..."

She couldn't take it anymore, all of this stress and hurt that she felt. She thought back to the bunker again, she had to do something to try and solve this. Her mind jumped around from climbing the tree to open the bunker, all the way to leaving the bunker unscathed.

Wendy's mind kept lingering on one thing though, and for once it wasn't the look Dipper had after being let down by her. She sat up in bed, hopping back onto her feet, leaving her room and the cabin with a "bye" to her family. She had to do this, and do it now.

The redhead grabbed an ax stuck in a tree stump nearby, carrying it with her as she walked back into the woods with determination.

Within a few minutes she reached the same tree she climbed earlier, finding the entrance to the bunker already open. She knew it was a good idea to bring the ax. Wielding it, she started climbing down the spiral staircase, eventually landing on the bottom of the entrance, walking into the first room of the bunker.

Nothing was different, the bed and the supplies were all still there. Wendy kept the ax held up at the ready as she briskly walked through the moving-walls-and-symbol-puzzle room, making sure not to step on the same button that started the security mechanism from before.

She walked right past the monitors and into the next room, stopping just in front of a cryogenic tube.

The redhead pointed her ax at the shapeshifter still frozen inside of it, a faux Dipper stuck in an animation of an agonizing scream. Her face slowly morphed itself, from determined, to angry, seething, enraged. This was the cause of all of these problems.

"You. I've got some stuff I need to say to you."


	2. Chapter 2

Wendy held the ax in her hand, still pointing it at the cryogenically frozen shapeshifter, a scowl on her face. At the peak of her frustration while in her room, she realized that all of this mess wouldn't have started in the first place if it wasn't for this thing. Her grip tightened around the ax handle, her pent up anger growing in her as she stepped closer to the cryo-chamber. She looked the shapeshifter right into it's frozen eyes, her own squinting with a fire in them.

"You really screwed stuff up, you know that?", the redhead began, not taking her gaze off of the frozen creature. "Everything was perfectly fine until we came down here and you stuck your non-existant nose into our business just so you could try and steal that journal. Like, what were you even going to do with it? You were already out, you could have just left this bunker when we came in!"

Wendy started pacing side to side in front of the cryogenic chamber, animating her arms as she vented her frustrations to the motionless shapeshifter.

"And I could eventually get past the nearly killing us aspect and you changing into me, but when Dipper gets involved, when my dork's feelings get involved-" she said, pointing her ax back at the blue-tinted experiment, "that's where you cross the line!"

In one fell swoop, all over rage and sadness came up in a huge burst, shouting at the now-harmless shapeshifter, "If it wasn't for you, things at the Shack would be normal! If it wasn't for YOU, I'd feel fine and work wouldn't suck more than usual! If it wasn't for YOU, Dipper wouldn't feel so down after what I told him, and if it wasn't for YOU, I wouldn't have told him it in the first place, because it WASN'T TRUE!"

Wendy stood in place, glaring at the ice-covered experiment, catching her breath after venting out the frustrations that she had built up since she went home that night after her first visit to the bunker, her words echoing through the bunker. As the realization of what she said hit her brain, she fell to her knees, dropping the ax, clanging loudly against the stone ground.

"I wish I could take it back... I feel like I've lost my best friend because I couldn't handle an issue like some dumb age gap... If everything wasn't so sudden, it would have worked out, because like... I do like Dipper," Wendy said, feeling completely drained after letting out all of her anger, looking back up at the iced shapeshifter, "And how he won't even speak to me, let alone be near me. I haven't seen him in days, and it's all because I didn't have the guts to tell him how I actually feel..."

Wendy let out a sigh, sitting in silence with only the ambient sound of the wind blowing above the bunker audible. She knew how she really felt about Dipper. After all the things he did for her and how much he went out of his way for Wendy, she knew she felt the same. Being honest to herself, she had known this since they shared a dance during the party at the Shack; the lights shimmering against his eyes, the small talk and chuckles he made during a slow song, the way he smiled and blushed while being so closer to her.

"I'm a spineless dweeb...", Wendy said out loud.

"U-Um, I-I don't think so," a familiar voice responded right behind her. The redhead quickly turned around, her eyes widening in shock as she was now face-to-face with the person she desperately wanted to see and not see at the same time, the person who was stuck on her mind for almost her entire summer.


	3. Chapter 3

Wendy knelt almost as frozen as the shapeshifter was, petrified with shock, fear, and astonishment; the latter mostly because she hadn't actually seen Dipper in days. Her brain was a jumbled mess of questions and concerns, half of her wanting to run away from the situation like before, and the other half wanting to just hug the brunette mystery hunter and not let go.

"H-Hey Wendy...", Dipper managed to say, glancing up at her to make sure she hadn't become even more upset with him or the situation.

"How much did you hear?", Wendy asked, a soft blush of pink starting to warm up her cheeks, thinking that she was totally caught in the moment, blurting out her feelings about the person that now stood in front of her.

"A-Almost all of it...", Dipper replied, bracing himself for some kind of retaliation, whether verbal or physical. He waited like that for a few seconds, looking back up with one eye open, expecting to see an even more furious Wendy, but was surprised, and a little concerned, to see her sitting with her back against the cryogenic chamber, her head in her hands.

Wendy sat there, covering her blushing and exhausted face, trying to think of something, anything, to say. She had unknowingly told her heart to the person it fluttered for, and all she could think about was him potentially feeling worse than before.

Her brain in that state could only picture Dipper not talking to her for the rest of the summer and leaving her behind. She could only imagine the normal chipper and bright face he had around her being replaced with a constant bitter and sad one, and it nearly broke her heart.

"A-Are you alright? I hope you didn't get h-hurt down here again...", Dipper asked, too nervous to step forward, not wanting to cross over any boundaries Wendy might need. He stood in place, looking at her, concerned.

Wendy couldn't believe it, after turning him down and causing him so much sadness, Dipper still cared about her more than anything. He hadn't even talked to her for a week and the first thing on his mind after hearing that she did share his feelings was her well-being. She couldn't keep her eyes from welling up, the floodgates opening as she cried into her hands, her body visibly jolting with each sob, sniffling.

Dipper's eyes instantly widened at the slight sounds and signs of his favorite redhead crying, immediately walking over to her, foregoing any boundaries that were set. Once he reached the redhead, he reached a hand out to her, hesitating to touch her, but eventually giving in and resting his hand on Wendy's shoulder.

The brunette didn't know the entire reason why she was crying, but it didn't matter, he just wanted to help her in any way he could. Wendy jumped a bit as she felt Dipper's hand against her shoulder, not expecting it, looking up at him, her cheeks puffy and red from tears falling against them.

Dipper pulled his hand back and a near supersonic speed, worried that he might have worsened Wendy's condition, "I-I'm sorry! I-I'll lea-"

The redhead couldn't let him go, not this time. She instantly reached her own hand out, grabbing Dipper's and pulling him down into a big, tight embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around her dork.

Dipper let out a surprised "ah!" as he was tugged down into Wendy's arms, his trademark hat falling off, a warm red blush on his cheeks as he didn't expect to be this close to her, let alone for Wendy to pull him into a hug at this moment. He didn't question it though, wrapping his own arms around the redhead, squeezing tight as he rested his head against her chest that was still moving erratically from her sobs.

Wendy just sat there with Dipper, crying into his soft chestnut brown hair, holding him as tightly as she could without hurting him. She didn't want to let him go, she thought she had already started to lose him and now that she had him in her grip, she never wanted Dipper to leave, ever.

She felt the brunette's own arms squeeze in return around her, practically feeling his desire to help her and comfort her. As the minutes passed, Wendy started to calm down a bit, helped by Dipper's gentle "shh"s and "it's okay"s, his hand rubbing against her back.

"I-I'm sorry...", Wendy finally manages to say, her voice still wobbly from the intense emotion in it.

"It's not your fault Wendy," Dipper assured her, not wanting to have her feel this bad ever again.

"B-But it is..."

"Hey, I'm the spineless dweeb who couldn't even talk to his best friend!", Dipper quickly reassured her, hoping his callback might cheer her up a little.

Wendy smiled very softly as she pulled back to see her dork's face, her arms still wrapped around him, "Yeah, but it's my fault you couldn't talk to me in the first place..."

"We both know what you were doing was the right thing, I was just too selfish to see how much I was hurting you by not being around you...", Dipper replied, averting his eyes from the redhead holding him.

"Dipper, y-you heard me just now, it was the "right" thing, but it didn't feel right for me!", Wendy said. Dipper brought his eyes back to Wendy's, looking into the deep glimmering green they were.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"Dork, I mean that... I do like you, like, a lot, dude. Like, more than a lot of other people, as much as you like me, man," Wendy said, her body shaking a bit from anxiety left over from crying and from telling Dipper to his face, his actual face, how she actually felt about him.

Now it was Dipper's turn to be speechless, his eyes widening as his brain tried to decipher the perfectly uncoded words that Wendy just said.

"Honestly, I wanted to tell you then and there that night after the bunker. But, I knew if that if people found out about us, they would freak out. You have enough stuff to deal with, dude.", Wendy explained, wiping a few tears from her cheek.

"Y-You... like me?", Dipper managed to say, still in total shock over the new information from his not-so-secret crush.

"Duh, ya dork~", Wendy said with a soft grin, starting to feel a bit better after finally saying what she had been wanting to for these past few days, and from Dipper's comfort and company she needed.

Dipper couldn't have been happier, his face going from bewilderment to ecstatic, squeezing his arms tight around Wendy, burying his head into her neck, sniffling a bit as he held in joyful tears. The redhead squeezed him right back, exhilarated to finally be sharing an embrace with her dork; one that wasn't mixed with sadness or angst.

They sat there, listening to each other breathe easily in the quietness of the bunker, until Dipper finally looked up at Wendy, mustering up the courage to ask her something.

"S-So, I guess we can't be together, huh... The whole age gap thing," Dipper said reluctantly, his eyes looking to the side.

"Well, I wouldn't say we _can't_ be together," Wendy assured him, giving him a warm smile.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"What if we just didn't tell anyone, we don't make it obvious. It'll be our little secret, until we think people will understand it or be comfortable with it," Wendy replied, a hand running through the brunette's hair.

Dipper mulled the idea over in his head, his face going from thinking to a happy smile, giving Wendy a nod.

"That could work! I-I'm sure some people will find out though, like Mabel and Stan," Dipper said, his logical mind already going to work with different outcomes.

"Dude, Mabel's bound to be the only person who's wanting to see us together _already_! And I think Stan already knows a thing or two," Wendy assured him, resting her head back against the cryogenic chamber behind her.

"As long as you're ok with it," Dipper replied, not wanting to overstep any of Wendy's boundaries.

"Of course I'm ok with it, dude! I just bawled my eyes out because I've been wanting to for weeks now!", Wendy exclaimed, grinning and giggling from her dork's constant lovable concern.

Dipper could only smile back, nuzzling back into Wendy's neck, his arms giving her one more squeeze. He felt peaceful and elated at the same time, wanting to run around the room and celebrate, but also wanting to just stay in Wendy's embrace. He let out a content sigh, choosing the latter.

Wendy leaned her head down and gave the brunette's forehead a kiss, giggling to herself as a soft pink hue became visible at the top of Dipper's cheeks.

"S-So, what do we do now?", Dipper asked.

"We should leave, people are probably wondering where we are, but only if you're ready." Wendy said, not wanting to force him.

"I don't want to leave just yet."

"Me either, dude. A few more minutes?" Wendy asked. Dipper nodded in reply, both of them enjoying the warmth and peacefulness of being in each others' arms.

"I love you, Wendy."

"Love you too, dork~"

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 **Thanks for reading!**


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